I tried to clean up our blogroll a bit. If there's anything that should be added or modified, please post in comments.
is underway. To catch anyone reading this up, Ender here. I'm giving WikiFray a makeover as making Blogger blogs over is one of the things I do these days. I'm not back except in the aforementioned capacity. This would be the place for any likes, dislikes and wishes.
...fixing the banner so that it's clickable again? I don't exactly remember how to do it. I could figure it out, but it would take me an hour or so. If someone can find and fix it without wasting much of their time, I'd be most grateful.
Pathetic, I know. Please?
(also, any other improvements or suggestions for same are welcome. I'm thinking it's time for another book club, if y'all are interested.)
If you have just received an invitation to join WikiFray and are wondering why, please read Ender's hara-kiri post, and the follow-up (fallout) over at the forum.
If you have posts on WikiFray and I've seen you in the last six months and I could find your email address, you've received an invitation. You're welcome to return and post, edit, delete or ignore the invitation altogether. If you didn't get an invitation, and you want access, email me at dawncoyote@gmail.com, and I'll add you.
——————I can't get comments to show up. If anyone would like to fix that... In the meantime, there's the forum, for the next two weeks, anyway.
Fixed.
Forum link
WikiFray is closed. Below are some of the familiar links. Thanks. Goodnight.
Home | Forum | Profiles | Join | RSS/Atom |
Best of the Fray
Dear Prudence
Fraywatch
Poems
Sports Nut
Discuss
Slate
Today's Pictures
Age of Reason
august philippic
awedacity
Bored Of The Board
BTC News
Cacaphony And Discord
Freelance Genius
Heavenly Haiku
I am not a god
Isonomist
Keifus Writes!
Man Bites Blog
Mock Haiku
MsZilla
Nobody In Particular
Notes From A Transitional Fossil
Parallax Error
Quiblit
Red State Impressions
Self-Absorbed Boomer
Shann Palmer
TED BURKE, like it or not
Tenacity Central
the odd neighbor
The Outer Sanctum
this page intentionally left blank
ThyGoddess
topazz (with a zz)
When you thought it was quiet
Who Is IOZ?
Who Put Back the Clock?
Wordflare.com
So, if WF isn't a regular stop, which it apparently isn't, then what is it? Not worth the effort, I'm thinking. In fact, the only way I can see it being worth my effort is if its contributors made an effort to make it worth reading. I don't see that happening. And if people were game for turning it around, I'd much prefer to start anew on an entirely new blog. But I have to qualify that as well. I just don't think those that remain are capable.
So, I'm going to sleep on it, but I think it's probably best if I shut this place down. That involves installing a basic template and removing everyone's posting privileges.
WikiFray's search engine traffic for the last month by keyword. Click on image for larger version.
Please complete Phase I prior to proceeding with Phase II.
For an overview/better understanding of how all this works, read Hector's instructions, and in particular for this Phase II, scroll down to near the bottom of his post and read the part that starts, "To make this "introduction" works for labels..."
Okay, so, that gray area just below and attached to your label. We're going to fill that space with information about you. What information is up to you. Below this post is a post by me titled "ed" and labeled "ed". The combination of these two elements (title and label) cause the contents of that post to appear in the gray area just under my label "ed."
Your task is to follow suit. Author a post both labeled and titled with your two letter initials/label that you created in Phase I. Then fill that post with what you'd like to appear in the gray space above, under your label.
It is entirely up to you what you want to include. I will standardized the "Favorite" and "Subscribe" links in mine and apply them to everyone, so don't worry about that. Otherwise, feel free to experiment with feeds of your latest from around the web or your blog, images, testimonials, contact information, confessions, whatever. It is entirely up to you. But with great power comes great responsibility. That means check your work. The space is 900 pixels wide and 200 pixels high. I've also had little time to experiment with it, so again, if what you're trying to do messes something up, undo it and try something else.
What I'd like is for everyone to experiment with this. My guess is that some of you might have some bright ideas, and the rest of us will copy your examples.
I've deleted all the labels. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Please select a two letter label for all your posts. This two letter label (lowercase) will be your initials. For example, my initials are "ed". I've assigned this label to all my posts.
1. To assign this new label to all your posts, log in to blogger and go to the dashboard. From there, select "Posts."
2. Go to your last post and click "Edit."
3. Label the post with your two letter lowercase initials, and publish it.
4. Return to the Posts page and select "300" from the dropdown menu.
5. Scroll down the list of posts and check those that are yours.
6. Return to the top of the page and assign your initials/label to the selected posts.
7. Repeat for Older Posts. 
Thank you, and stay tuned for Roll Call (of sorts) Phase II.
Hi all. As you know--assuming you still regular WF--WikiFray has been floundering. Contributing factors include the emergence of Quiblit, the confusion of nuponuq, the apparent successful redesign of The Fray, and my neglect. Nevertheless, the nature of the web is such that in spite of all this "searching" and thanks to the continued contributions of many of its members, WikiFray is a better idea today than it was when it first came into being. How's that?
I think WF has a role to play in keeping us connected. That is, in part due to WF we've all expanded our horizons and as a consequence our Fray roots aren't so deep . . .anymore. Given what's happened to BotF in our absence (read: there's no one left to keep the loons in check), the situation is that much worse. So, WF, as I see it, is worth keeping nice for that reason alone--as an old haunt for when you want to visit with old acquaintances, etc.
So there's that. No lofty aspirations. No grand scheme. Just a set of familiar walls. But even if that weren't the case, WF's worth as a blog, a url, also makes it worth saving. It enjoys a pagerank of 3, which isn't shabby and translates to search clout, i.e. your posts get a higher ranking in search results, or in English, your posts on WF are more likely to be read by strangers.
What then? Well, I'm going to reassume leadership of WF. That leadership is going to start with a redesign. I'm going to speed up load times and make the place more pleasing to the eye and efficient. I'm also going to add JS-Kit threaded comments (scroll down for a preview). I'm going to see about reintegrating into the fray, and hopefully Moira will start something interesting, a new column and a new fray worth posting in. I'll be watching for that. I'm also going to look into setting up a forum of our own. See Nabble. Not to disrespect nuponuq (and I'll keep those links going for as long as they're useful), but if I've learned anything from my experience with nuponuq, it's that there's no substitute for someone else, someone who knows what they're doing, managing the technical end of your site and paying for it out of their pocket. Nabble does that. Or to put it another way, Nabble is as good as the fray in that it's bigger than us. But Nabble is a bit down the line. Having a forum other than the fray has its perks, but aside from my own desire to see what I can do with it, I don't see it as being the focus, just something nice to have.
Which brings me sorta full circle. I'm going to strengthen WF's ties to The Fray. For better or worse, I like the new fray's software, and Moira's return makes me hopeful. Not anything specific mind you. In fact, chances are Moira isn't the fray's savior. But if she is, it changes things. And things do change don't they. For some of us at least. For those of us who only know The Fray through its reflection in our rearview mirrors. Quiblit, of course, will be integrated as well, not to mention everyone's blogs and the like. However, I am going to clean house. To do that in a nice way, I'm going to need hold a roll call of sorts. So, this is your heads-up. WF has benefits. I think you'll like what I'm going to do to it. Don't miss the boat. Hard to say, but I may be mostly done in a week, but for sure done by the end of this month.
skitch has made it possible for comments from the a blog to the forum to automatically link back to the blog post they are in response to. That means, with the following code on your blog, readers can opt to send their comments to the WikiFray Forum, and those comments will contain a link back to not just your blog, but the particular blog post the comment is in response to. In this way, those reading the forum will be alerted to your new blog content.
<span style='font-size:xx-small;'>You must be <a href='http://nuponuq.com/table/index.php?action=login' target='_blank'>logged in</a> to send comments to the forum. <a href='http://nuponuq.com/table/index.php?action=register' target='_blank'>Register</a>. <a expr:href='"http://www.nuponuq.com/table/forum/index.php?action=post&forumid=4&url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'>Forum Comment</a>.</span>skitch is also working on additional upgrades. Without making any promises, he hopes to make it possible to display the number of forum comments in response to your blog post as well as a Read Comments link that only returns those forum posts directly in response to your blog post.
With the label cloud out of the header, there’s really no more reason to limit labels to author and series. So, feel free to label your posts with whatever labels you see fit.
All comments now go to the forum. You need to be registered and logged in to comment.
Did you know that we have yet to be linked to by (a legitimate) someone outside of our neighborhood? This is a commentary on us: we suck/see trend ↓. I would suggest we have a little race--first person to write a post that someone outside our neighborhood finds interesting wins squat--but that would be lame. Ready. Set. Go. 
Anyone can. That means you.
You will need a Google Account, but that's because Google owns Blogger, and not because WikiFray is just some devious trick to get you to sell your soul to big brother or anything like that.
Email wikifray@gmail.com, Subject: I'd like to join WikiFray.
In reply to that email you'll receive a Gmail Invitation and a Blogger Invite. You can register for a Google Account using your regular email address, or you can use the Gmail Invitation to create your Google Account. It's entirely up to you. Once you have your Google Account set up, simply follow the instructions contained in the Blogger Invite. If you run into trouble at any point you can post your question(s) as a comment in reply to any post on WikiFray, or email wikifray@gmail.com and an Administrator will help you.
Assuming there are no problems, that's it, you're free to begin posting. There are, however, two technical notes:Labels:Post Summary:You must label your posts with your name or nickname. This is how the label cloud in the WikiFray header is generated and updated. If you forget to label your post, someone may remind you in a comment, or an Administrator may be so kind as to label it for you, but the responsibility to label your posts remains yours. Labels other than your nickname are allowed for series only. If you have a question about what constitutes a series please ask or see the label cloud for current examples.
When you go to create a post you will find the following in the text box of your post:
That's it. The rest of this post is an explanation of the various parts of WikiFray and how you can take advantage of them, but as far as posting is concerned, you have everything you need.Type your summary here
If you don't want to apply the post summary option to your post, simply delete this text.
<span id="fullpost">
Type rest of the post here
</span>
If you do want to summarize your post, replace "Type your summary here" with the summary of your post that you'd like to appear, and replace "Type rest of the post here" with the remainder of your post. Do not delete "<span id="fullpost">" or "</span>". Publish and double-check that you formatted your post correctly.
Feel free to try it even if you’re not sure how to do it. If you mess it up, it's okay. You can go back and edit your post, either trying again, or deciding not to use post summary and simply deleting the blockquoted text above from your text box.
Profiles: The Profiles button in the header is put there primarily to satisfy curious visitors. Clicking on it shows WikiFray's profile where a visitor can find all the profiles of WikiFray contributors. In this way, if someone takes an interest in you, they can click on your profile to find, for example, your email address, or your personal blog. With this in mind, take a few minutes to customize your Blogger Profile so that it tells interested parties what you want it to tell them.Comments: The first sidebar is devoted solely to your comments. Whether you’re commenting on a post posted today, last week or last year, your comment will be displayed in the first sidebar.
Favorites: Favorites is the top element in the second sidebar. There are three menus in Favorites.Neighborhood is a list of the known/active blogs of current and former fray posters and WikiFray contributors. If you want your blog added to this list, please drop wikifray@gmail.com a note. In the unending effort to keep the Neighborhood menu comprehensive, current and most of all, useful to you, please also notify wikifray@gmail.com if you discover a deficiency, dead link or other questionable item.
Network Feed: The Network Feed is a combined feed of contributor's posts on their personal blogs, and the comments posted on those blogs. The list of blogs that comprise the Network Feed can be found here. If you are a contributor and want the feed from your blog included, but find that it is not, email wikifray@gmail.com and it will be added.
Fray/Slate is the list of known frequented Fray/Slate destinations. If there is a Fray board or Slate column that you regularly visit but is not included in this menu, please drop wikifray@gmail.com a note and it will be added. The aim of this menu, like the others, is to make WikiFray a useful tool for navigating the Fray and Slate. If this menu is not useful to you in that respect, then it's not serving its purpose. Do not hesitate to request the addition of your Fray/Slate favorites.
MBTUs is similar to both the Neighborhood and Fray/Slate in that it lists our MBTUs and the MBTUs of posters we like to read. If your MBTU is not included, or the MBTU of a poster you like to read is missing, email wikifray@gmail.com and yours/theirs will be added.
Recommended is the second element in the second sidebar. It shows the last 3 articles, websites, fray posts, etc. from around the web which have been recommended by WikiFray contributors and readers. Use ma.gnolia to tag your recommendations with "wikifray" to have them appear under Recommended.
If there is a recurring theme it is that if you have a question, notice a problem, or have a suggestion, email wikifray@gmail.com. WikiFray is a hub, a way station, a mother ship, a community, and that's just for starters. If you see that it's not serving its purpose, or you notice a way that it could be doing something better or something more, play a part.
Reading some of the comments lately it occurred to me that WikiFray could use something similar to dailykos’ "open threads" where, for starters, off topic comments needn’t be qualified as off topic. I’ll give it a go, assign it a label, and try to be creative with it. At first blush, I’ll use it to highlight fray posts, happenings or currents that I otherwise wouldn’t comment on. There’s also my specialty, WikiFray tech, so I can alert everyone to changes, features and issues. So there’s that, and whatever else seems noteworthy.
Rather than trying to put together an off topic post daily (forcing it, making it a burden), I’ll just top post them when I have a few items worth highlighting. Daily (or perhaps bi-weekly), however, would be preferable I think (depending on the level of activity), so although I’m not asking anyone else to help, I do open up the “series” (Label “Off Topic”) to anyone. So, for example, if you post an Off Topic post tomorrow, and I happen to have an Off Topic post ready as well, I’ll post my off topic as a comment in reply to your Off Topic post. In this way, we can avoid more than one Off Topic top post per day.
Lastly, the idea is for you to use the opportunity to post comments on stuff that you’re thinking about or that you suspect might be of interest, but didn’t plan on devoting an entire post to. You could also use them to draw attention to happenings on your individual blogs, i.e. don’t be shy. And of course, whatever else you can think of.
So let’s see:
-You may have noticed that threeninethreesix is off the reservation. It’s an issue with blogger (and I don’t think they’d approve of how we were using it anyway), but I’ve left it largely untended to given our comment feed no longer goes through it. There was also the trackback issue the new template brought to light. I didn’t necessarily like all those links back to threeninethreesix and was considering discontinuing it anyway. For now, I’m content to let it stay broke or fix itself. Copasetic?
-sitemeter is still behaving funny. Again, I’m hoping it will fix itself. However, at some point I will address the issue if it persists.
-Not that I’m going to get in the habit of welcoming new contributors, but alexa and bacon have joined us. And speaking of contributors, who and where are mrhurley and constantine512? Anybody?
-I’ve got a few other side projects I’m working on, change being the only constant and all. One, however, that I’ve yet to give a serious go is a wiki faq for WikiFray. “A ‘wiki’?” you say. Yes, a wiki. So if any Admin wants to endeavor, the login and password are wikifray's. http://editthis.info/wikifray_faq/Main_Page
Whatever you do, don’t panic. I’m switching us over to a new template. If you don’t like it, say so in a comment. It’s not a problem to switch it back to the old.
Note: I’m still working on it (for example: I need to redo the icons and buttons on the navigation bar so they’re easier to read, and the footer, etc.). But I need to do those final touches in WikiFray. Shouldn’t take, at most, more than a week.
Other stuff, but the long and short of it is if you have a preference or a suggestion, now is the time to speak up.
It’s not just because we’re already famous that plagiarism has real implications for WikiFray. When an author seeks recourse under Digital Millennium Copyright Act for unauthorized use of their work, a service provider is obliged to take action and may block access to the site where the infringement has occurred, or they may take down the site altogether.
Plagiarism Guidelines (proposed):
I’m willing to take the lead temporarily. I’m going to be going away from late Nov. until mid Dec., so I’m motivated to get this sorted out quickly, and get things back on track. I’m not interested in an on-going leadership role here, but I am interested in seeing the blog survive. Can you all trust me for a short time, while we try something out?
What I need from you:
Contributors and any other interested parties please nominate yourselves to the board of directors. All those who wish to have a voice in blog business are welcome to become directors. I’d like to invite topazz and Ender to participate in the process. I also encourage those who do not feel aligned with Ender or myself or topazz to join in the process. While divisive grandstanding will be discouraged as counter-productive, this ought not be an insider’s club. All are welcome.
I’ll need your email to give you access, so if Ender doesn’t have it, you need to give it to him.
Ender, if you’ll give me access, I’m going to set up a boardroom blog for these interested individuals only, in order to work out blog business away from public scrutiny. I’m of the opinion that business matters are best discussed behind closed doors, not because any of it needs to be secret, but because too many voices with too many agendas tend hamstring the process.
All interested parties please sign in below.
